The boxing gloves worn by Muhammad Ali when he won his first world heavyweight championship have sold for £520,000 in New York.

Ali, then called Cassius Clay, wore them in 1964 to fight Sonny Liston, winning by a technical knockout when Liston removed to come out of his corner for the seventh round. February 25 2014 is the 50th anniversary of the fight.

The gloves were cut from his wrists by the boxer’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, who kept them until his death in 2012.

Ali was stripped of his title in 1967 for refusing to fight in Vietnam, regaining it in 1974 from George Foreman and winning it a third time in 1978.

Auction organiser Chris Ivy expected £300,000. He said the “spectacular” result showed: “Ali is a figure that transcends boxing.”